Biography

Michelle Fox is a founding partner of the Quinn Emanuel Australia office. Michelle has practiced in the US, the UK, and Australia and maintains practising certificates in all 3 jurisdictions. Michelle represents some of Australia's leading companies in a broad range of strategically important, complex commercial litigation matters, including mass torts, class actions, product liability, regulatory investigations (including white collar crime), directors' liability and financial services.

Michelle has acted as a solicitor advocate before the Supreme Court of New South Wales, the High Court in England and as an advocate before the State and Federal Courts of Massachusetts and New Hampshire, US. Michelle’s experience means she is highly sought after by leading companies to advise on their corporate and liability exposures.

Michelle has significant experience in alternative dispute resolution, including substantial multi-party arbitrations and mediations. Michelle teaches courses in negotiation and has been a guest lecturer at Stanford University on mass torts and complex litigation since 2011.

In addition to complex dispute resolution, Michelle has a wealth of experience and is highly rated in contentious and non-contentious insurance and reinsurance, acting for both corporate insureds, and select insurers and reinsurers.

Michelle was awarded ‘Best Lawyer International’ awards in 2016 for Alternative Dispute Resolution, Class Action Litigation, Insurance Law, Litigation and Product Liability Litigation. She was ranked by Chambers Asia Pacific for both dispute resolution and insurance this year, and has been described as a “very sharp and solution-oriented” practitioner who is “quick to grasp the issues and sensitivities” of a matter (Chambers Asia Pacific 2015). Michelle was also ranked in Band 2 for Insurance Individuals by Chambers Global in 2009-2014, and recognised by Legal 500 Asia Pacific in Insurance for 2012, 2014-2016. Who's Who Legal 2015 honoured and commended Michelle for her "superb adaptability" across practice areas. She has also been described as “a great strategist who can think beyond just pure legal interpretation" and is “very responsive, communicates well without over-communicating and has a good ability to cut to the key issues” (Chambers Asia-Pacific 2016).

Notable Representations

BrisConnection v Arup – Michelle is currently defending Arup Pty Ltd in proceedings brought by the receivers of the Airport Link toll road in Brisbane, with a reported loss put at $2.8 billion. Litigation is ongoing.

NuCoal Ltd — Following the Independent Commission Against Corruption hearings throughout 2013, in January 2014 the NSW Government passed the Mining Amendment (Operations Jasper and Acicia) Act; thereby expropriating NuCoal’s licence and its ability to access its coal reserves valued at $500 million. NuCoal thereafter instructed Quinn Emanuel to assume its legal representation. As widely reported in the press, we have instituted a judicial review and constitutional challenge in the High Court of Australia; and are pursuing a claim under the Australia – US Free Trade Agreement.

Directors & Officers — Advising and representing the Non-Executive Directors following the collapse of this ABC Learning Centres, including the regulatory investigations of ASIC, liquidators examinations and defending a $500 million claim for alleged misleading and deceptive conduct and breach of disclosure obligations under Corporations Act 2001. No director nor officer we represented was prosecuted, nor found civilly liable post the Liquidator’s examinations and other litigation.

Lend Lease — Acted for Bovis Lend Lease’s in its successful defence of the World Trade Centre clean-up litigation, where over 18,000 plaintiffs sued the City of New York, our client and others in relation to the WTC clean-up operations. As its peak, the litigation was reported to be one of the largest mass tort actions in the United States. Michelle played a key role in driving a resolution strategy which saw all claims resolved with no settlement contribution from our client and historic legislation becoming law in the US, which effectively limited Bovis Lend Lease’s and other contractors exposure to available insurance. Michelle continues to act for Bovis Lend Lease in relation to new, recently filed claims.

Acting (and acted) for a number of prominent directors and officers facing regulatory investigation by ASIC (and others). To date none of our clients have been the subject of charges as a result of these investigations, let alone successful prosecution.

Michelle is handling a number of other high profile matters, but as our role is not a matter of public record, we do not mention them there.